VPN use doubles during Olympics

Virtual private network (VPN) usage doubles during the Olympics, when people want to watch sport online.

Last Olympics saw a record number of new VPN users, with NordVPN reporting its sales grew by 104.72%.

This is because it is not always possible for spectators to watch their own country’s athletes perform, particularly while they are travelling in other countries.

A VPN service links the user’s computer to a server in a country of their choice via an encrypted tunnel. For example, a person can appear to be in the US while they actually are in Europe, or vice versa, simply by choosing a different VPN server location.

It enables users to substitute their current IP address with the IP address of another country so they can watch the Olympics as if they were in that country.

The Winter Olympic Games will start in PyeongChang, South Korea, this month. Billions of eyes all over the world will be on this event, which also carries important messages about peace, unity and tolerance.

Olympic Games draw millions of viewers around the world — around 3.5 billion people watched the last Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/spaxiax

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